Ralph and his pal Jim are a pair of cheap and lazy college dropouts. Then they meet Bonnie and Maggie, and their lives change. The young women hope to transform an old country schoolhouse and a field of apple trees into an "upscale" souvenir outlet. But they are haunted by their previous association with a stranger who once preyed upon their need for money by luring them into a brief but highly illegal role in the distribution of a product called "Doctor Marthambles' Sovereign Potion." The young men are increasingly drawn to the women, and Ralph and Bonnie soon find themselves engaged in a wary mating dance. The stranger re-enters their lives and resorts to blackmail and violence to force the women to sell the illegal Po' in their store. The young men are stirred to action; they brave gunfire and the icy claws of winter to safeguard their girlfriends' well-being and reputations. A vivid description of life in not so long-ago Montana, in and near a small town called Riverside.